A Canadian Corvette team will target a successful title defence during this weekend’s Mopar Canadian Nationals….
Paolo Giust – who had a serious break out season racing in the Pro Modified class during 2015 – might very well be an odds on favourite to once again stand in victory lane come Sunday night at Grand Bend Motorplex.
Fans will recall that Giust (who is from Osgoode ON) produced a rather unexpected victory at this event about 365 days ago when he took his then brand new G-Force Race Cars supercharged Corvette C7 to the event win, upsetting fellow Canadian and seasoned Pro Mod racer Eric Latino in the final round.
After making some recent personal adjustments – Paolo and his wife Shannon will in fact be bringing their Corvette to Grand Bend in an attempt to retain their event title.
“Originally – we just had too many conflicts with crew’s work scheduling and it didn’t look like we could come,” Paolo revealed. “But now my good buddy from Oklahoma – Adam Braddock – is going to fly up to help. Adam is very experienced in drag racing – he’s worked on a lot of cars – Top Fuel and Pro Mods. Both Shannon and I are really proud of what we accomplished here last year and we really wanted to defend our title. I think we’ll be in a good position for that.”
Since his win in the Corvette last year Paolo and his team have continued a very steady progress forward. Their affiliation with both Jon and Jim Salemi has produced many positive results including a huge win at Norwalk’s “Shakedown” last fall and also good placings at various PDRA 1/8th mile races which is a circuit they frequent.
“We are for sure now a more experienced team then we were this time last year,” he added. “We have over 100 runs on the car and a lot data for it. Our best 1/4 mile run to date is a 5.90 (secs) but I’m really looking forward to seeing what the car can do on Grand Bend’s new track surface this weekend.”
For racing fans, the mix and battle for Pro Mod class car supremacy this weekend at Grand Bend should be a fun one with some prominent racers from both the USA and Canada going head to head.
Post and photos by Bruce Biegler